Be a Man
by Vilinye
Summary: How does Rory tranform from a bumbling nurse to the Lone Centurian? Maybe he took a little advice from the movie Mulan. Four drabbles inspired by "Make a Man out of You."
1. Swift as the Coursing River

103

The leaves turned gold and crimson before drifting to the ground to be covered in snow. Snowdrops sprouted among the abandoned Roman tents, while moss grew over the collapsed canvas. He picks gooseberries from the hedgerows, thinking of his old nickname, and makes ink from them, painting messages throughout the Underhenge. They fade in less than a week.

* * *

118

When Rory, leaning against one of the stones, first saw the company approaching across Salisbury plain, a lump rose in his plastic throat. People. Actual people, who could talk to him.

The commander has explained it all. Somehow word had reached Rome of the Lone Centurion guarding a Celtic treasure for sixteen years. "We've come to escort your back to Rome, with full honors."

"Really? Well that's good. Really good. Been a bit…dull around here."

* * *

420

In the Temple of the Blue Box, the Lone Centurion, High Priest of the Lady Pond, draws his sword, waiting for the Franks to cross his threshold.

A barbarian warrior slinks into the temple, eyes darting across the room. He's heard the rumors, of course; everyone says the Centurion is the oldest man alive, with the strength of ten, never showing pain and fighting like a demon to defend the box.

He doesn't live to confirm them.

* * *

1120

The Knights Templar aren't as bad as he through they'd be. Maybe he'd watched too much Monty Python and confused them with the Spanish Inquisition. Always was rubbish with history.

* * *

1231

They've made him into some sort of saint—Saint Fidelis, the Faithful One, or Saint Vigilans, the Vigilant One. He wishes Amy would take up and tell them all the reasons they're being ridiculous. At least he already knows Latin—that makes the endless Masses more bearable. In fact, he knows Latin so well he can sneak in dirty jokes and nonsense that go right over the Pope's head.

* * *

1492

He's forgotten what it's like to sit down at a meal and actually eat something.

* * *

1776

The American Revolution began the other day. He wants to laugh at the government's insistence that the rebels will never succeed. When Parliament wants him to give a stirring address to the departing troops, he disappears for a few months. "Stay out of trouble," the Doctor had said. Good luck with that.

* * *

1896

One hundred years to go.

He misses Amy.

* * *

1996

"I waited. Two thousand years I waited."

"Oh, shut up," Amy cuts off his complaints with a kiss.


	2. Force of a Great Typhoon

"Do you know how many lives never happened? Your girlfriend isn't more important than the whole universe."

He wasn't crying, he couldn't have been crying because he's not real, but any tears dry in a moment. Who is he to say this?

Yes, he's the Doctor.

Yes, he's a time traveler.

Yes, he's an alien.

But _he_ is Rory Williams, and no one disses Amy Pond like that. He got in the habit of defending her from being teased about her Raggedy Doctor, and he's not going to let her be teased by him.

All those years of teasing, all those physiatrists, those nights wondering if she'd ever notice him—he takes it all and throws it in the Doctor's face. "SHE IS TO ME!"


	3. Strength of a Raging Fire

A sword is superfluous when faced with a legion of Cybermen. Not because it's useless against so many foes, but because he doesn't need it. Yes, the Doctor's rigged the entire fleet to explode, but that's not why it's superfluous.

He'd take down the entire fleet with his bare hands if it would get him one step closer to Amy. The confusion when her avatar was revealed has hardened to resolute anger. He didn't guard her for almost two thousand years to have her snatched away and replaced by a lump of white goo. All those memories of the Last Centurion—memories he's tried so hard to suppress in favor of Rory Pond from Leadsworth—now it's time to surrender to them, let them fill his limbs with memories of how to fight and kill.

"I have a message and a question. A message from the Doctor and a question from me: WHERE! IS! MY! WIFE!"


	4. Mysterious as the Dark Side of the Moon

He's the Last Centurion, the guardian of the Pandorica for nearly two thousand years. He's been eaten by cracks in the universe, spit out the other side, and kept fighting for a girl who couldn't even remember him. Oh, the stories he could tell, from the Romans to Artos to Winston Churchill and Elizabeth II. The battles he's fought under starless skies—battles that never happened except in his memory. He should be able to face anything and everything. After all, he's been the awkward boy, the incompetent nurse, the gooseberry, a clumsy vampire hunter, a plastic centurion, and almost dead more times than he can count, but there's one thing that he's been through it all.

In love with Amy.

And somehow, even though he didn't know it, that love grew a baby. He's seen babies before—even taken shifts in obstetrics during school. But this is _his_ baby, _their _baby; his and Amy's. He never got to hear Amy whisper the news in his ear, never got to feel the baby kick, never got to look at the ultrasound photos. He never had to pamper Amy with weird pregnancy cravings or clean up the floor after she couldn't get to the toilet in time. He would have taken both sides—even the nasty side—if he just could have been there for her.

Melody snuggles against his chest, somehow ignoring the hard metal of his breastplate.

"Rory…they took her. They took our baby away."

"No, Mrs. Williams. That is _never, ever_ going to happen."


End file.
